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THE word that 22,000 veterans called the military’s new suicide hotline in the past year was somewhat disturbing. Even greater amount of troubling was the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs’ estimate that 6,500 veterans actually commit suicide each year.

Such statistics hardly encourage the view that the militia wants the American public to have of its personnel. Witness the Army’s newest slogan, “There’s strong, and then there’s Army robust.”

Self-destructive behavior by veterans is oftentimes a consequence of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). An article published in The Seattle Times on May 28 described service members with PTSD as feeling constantly under threat, having nightmares hind part before their wartime experiences and growing emotionally numb. Both they and their loved ones go through the consequences.

Fortunately, the Pentagon has finally realized that PTSD is a real syndrome, rather than just a tendency through some soldiers to complain relative to their circumstances. Perhaps the performance that nearly 40,000 troops were diagnosed with PTSD from serving in Iraq and Afghanistan between 2003 and 2007 helped military officials reach this conclusion. Even so, Army Surgeon General Eric Schoomaker says current estimates of PTSD cases are low, and that up to 30 percent of deployed soldiers have the condition.

As grewsome like having PTSD can be for a veteran, a subset of such victims suffers an but also greater affliction: traumatic brain injury. These individuals typically had the calamity of life close to a bomb or other explosive weapon whenever it detonated, resulting in serious injury to the brain.

Veterans through traumatic brain injuries often experience a host of cognitive and emotional difficulties, requiring substantial help from others to readjust to civilian life. Unlike many other injuries, traumatic brain syndrome does not necessarily improve significantly with time.

However, like other serious medical injuries, caring for someone with a traumatic brain wrong can be very expensive. According to a recent study by the RAND Corporation, the cost can run anywhere from $27,000 to more than $400,000 by the year, depending forward the severity of the injury.

With its reliance in the first place on hospital-based treatment, the VA system has neither the facilities nor the personnel to serve 50,000 to 100,000 veterans suffering from PTSD and traumatic brain injuries. With its experience in serving traumatized individuals, as well as its geographical and cultural accessibility, the race’s community mental-health system could be of tremendous assistance in helping serve veterans with PTSD.

To be sure, additional resources would be needed for common mental-health providers to assume this additional responsibility; yet the VA system would need even more such available means, since it lacks any significant outpatient and case-management infrastructure to meet these needs.

America faces a train cast away then our men and women in uniform finally return home in large verse. Seriously traumatized veterans command be enforced to rapidly readjust to families, jobs and civilian the breath of one’s nostrils while concurrently struggling with both the physical and emotional repercussions of war that accompanied them back to the United States.

They inclination require our heal, and they will have earned it. Hopefully, we will prove as diligent in meeting their needs as they have in meeting those of our country.